FRACTIONAL INNOVATION DIRECTOR

Your portfolio company is burning cash on projects nobody validated.

I bring my own stack. 4 weeks. Pivot/Persevere decision.
I don't bring slides — I bring my own team.

Book a 30-min call How it works
☑ Guarantee: no value after week 2 = you pay only 40%

Scale-up Series A/B · VC Portfolio Companies · Regulated Industries · AI Adoption

Problem

Three symptoms of the same mistake

🔥

Burn rate without PMF

You hired a developer, then another. You're moving faster in the wrong direction. Sprint after Sprint the hypothesis validation keeps getting pushed.

🤯

AI-FOMO without strategy

“We need to implement AI” — every portfolio company hears this. But nobody knows where to start, who should lead it, or how to measure success.

🚫

Undefined scope = paralysis

The project is innovative, risks are high, scope is undefined. Nobody wants to touch it. Waiting costs more than validating.

8–12

weeks of validation without support

80%

of hypotheses fail — question is when

2–5M

PLN cost of wrong decision at Series B

How it works

4 weeks from “we don’t know” to “we know what to do next”

1
Risk Register

Week 1

Hypothesis audit. Regulatory analysis (EASA, GDPR, ISO). Risk list with probability assessment and mitigation. Bottleneck identified.

2 ☑
Stress Test + Snapshot

Week 2 — CHECKPOINT

Value prop validated through simulated buyer personas. Competitive snapshot: market windows, threats. No value? You pay 40% and we stop.

3
Working Prototype

Week 3

Working prototype for hypothesis validation. Without engaging your dev team. Not production-ready — built to test with real users.

4
Decision Brief

Week 4

1-page Pivot/Persevere document for Board and VC. Implementation cost estimate. Recommendation. The decision you'd normally wait 3 months for.

☑ Checkpoint after week 2: no value? You pay 40% and we stop. No discussion.

What you get

4 deliverables. Not presentations — decisions.

Week 1
🚫

Risk Register

List of regulatory, technical and market risks with probability assessment and mitigation. Your compliance officer does this in a week. My agents — in 4 hours.

Week 2
👥

Persona Stress Test + Competitive Snapshot

Simulated buyer personas test the value prop and “respond” to cold emails. Competitive snapshot: competitor moves, market windows, strategic threats.

Week 3
💻

Working Prototype

Working prototype for hypothesis validation — backend, frontend or API, depending on need. Without engaging the company’s dev team. Normally 2–3 dev sprints.

Week 4
📋

Decision Brief

1-page Pivot/Persevere document for Board and VC. Implementation cost estimate, risk map, recommendation. What normally takes a week of writing — done in 2 hours.

Differentiator

I bring my own stack

my stack doesn’t replace your dev team. it eliminates 80% of unnecessary decisions before the dev team ever touches the code.

Agent 01

Regulatory Sentry

Verifies backlog compliance with EASA, GDPR, ISO in 4 hours. What a compliance officer does in a week. Output: Risk Register with priorities.

Agent 02

Market Synthetic Persona

Simulates buyer personas (CTO, CFO, Head of Product) and tests value propositions. Responds to cold emails — message validation before outreach.

Agent 03

Competitor Intelligence

Autonomous monitoring of competitor APIs and products. Generates alerts on strategic threats. 1 day instead of 3–4 weeks of discovery.

+ 12 others

Claude Code CLI — 15 agents

Parallel work on discovery, prototyping and analysis. What takes 2–3 dev sprints, I close in 3–5 days.

By the numbers

Task Traditional consultant With my AI stack
Regulatory research (EASA/GDPR) 2–3 weeks 4 hours
Competitive discovery 3–4 weeks 1 day
Prototype for hypothesis validation 2–3 dev sprints Week 3 of Sprint
Decision Brief (Pivot/Persevere) 1 week of writing Draft 2h, review 1 day
Full Validation Sprint 8–12 weeks 4 weeks

Track Record

Projects others were afraid of

180heartbeats + Jung von Matt · Consumer Tech

Google Assistant — 0→1

Zero-to-one project: new voice product without precedent in the Polish market. Undefined scope, regulated, AI-embedded from day one.

600K

Monthly users

0→1

Product built

Bauwerk Parkett · B2B Platform

Platform for 2,500 partners

Undefined scope at entry: no PMF, no success metric. After the Sprint: defined requirements, roadmap and deployed platform with record adoption.

2500

B2B Partners

80%+

Adoption

Evionica · Aviation (EASA)

Speech-to-Text + LLM

AI in regulated aviation: EASA, ISO 27001, compliance-first. Speech-to-text + LLM deployment in pilot training product.

EASA

Regulated delivery

AI

Production LLM

Exit 1

LibraLogic SaaS

Pivot at the right moment — I know when to say “stop”. Sold after transitioning to a new model. Founder experience = I don’t just advise.

Exit 2

24/7Digital Agency

Persevere in a tough market: 3→30 FTE, 36 months without a loss. I know when to stay the course. Profitable exit.

Investment

Three engagement models

Sprint at 40k PLN (~€9k) = 0.8–2% of the cost of a wrong decision for a Series B company. An obvious choice.

Portfolio Audit

10–12kPLN

Quick assessment before a funding round. 2 days.

  • ✓ Product hypothesis audit
  • ✓ Technology debt assessment
  • ✓ Risk Register (express version)
  • ✓ 1-page VC recommendation
Book a call

★ Validation Sprint

35–45kPLN

Full Sprint + Decision Brief. 4 weeks, 4 deliverables.

  • ✓ Risk Register (Week 1)
  • ✓ Persona Stress Test + Competitive Snapshot (Week 2)
  • ✓ Working Prototype (Week 3)
  • ✓ Decision Brief Pivot/Persevere (Week 4)
  • ✓ Guarantee: 40% after week 2
Book a call
☑ WEEK 2 GUARANTEE

Operating Partner

20–30kPLN/mo.

Retainer for VC: 2 days/week, 2–4 portfolio companies.

  • ✓ 2 days/week per portfolio company
  • ✓ Ongoing audit of product decisions
  • ✓ AI stack available to portfolio
  • ✓ Fast intervention on pivot
Book a call
Comparison Cost Time to decision
Big4 consulting 150–300k PLN 3–6 months
Hiring an Innovation Director 50–80k PLN/mo. 5–9 months
No decision 2–5M PLN runway ∞
Validation Sprint 35–45k PLN 4 weeks

About me

I’m not another consultant with PowerPoint

Rafał Knap — Fractional Innovation Director

for 20+ years I’ve been doing — not just planning. I built and sold 2 startups. I know when to say pivot (LibraLogic) and when to stay the course (24/7Digital, 36 months without a loss). Regulated industries are my sweet spot, not a problem.

I come with my own “employees” (15 Claude Code agents). I don’t burden your resources in a phase where 80% of hypotheses will be discarded anyway.

20+ years in IT 2 exits EASA / GDPR / ISO 15 AI agents 80 FTE peak 600K UU Google

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

No. The Experimental Sprint enters the Discovery phase — before the CTO/CPO ever touches the code. My goal is to deliver a decision: whether the project is viable and how to move forward. After the Sprint, your team knows what to do.

The Decision Brief contains: (1) why the hypothesis didn’t work, (2) what we confirmed, (3) three alternative directions with risk assessment, (4) a recommendation for which one to pursue. Pivot is not failure — it’s saving 3–6 months of runway.

I use Claude Code CLI locally — data doesn’t go to AI clouds without consent. Agents work on documents provided by the company. I can sign an NDA before the start. GDPR compliance by default.

Yes — that’s the point of the Guarantee. If after week 2 (Checkpoint: Risk Register + Persona Stress Test done) you don’t see value, we stop. You pay 40% of the price. No explanations, no discussion.

Not exclusively — but regulated industries are my sweet spot. EASA, GDPR, ISO 27001, FinTech, HealthTech. Where other consultants are afraid, I grew up. I also work in SaaS B2B, e-commerce, developer tools, HR tech.

Start within 7 days of signing the contract. First diagnostic call via Calendly (30 min). I’ll be honest about whether I can help — if not, I’ll point you to someone who can.

Next step

Your money goes toward growth,
not wandering in the R&D phase.

30-minute call. No commitment. Tell me about your project — I’ll be honest about whether the Validation Sprint is the right answer.

Book a call → Calendly

P.S. Every week without a decision is more burn rate. The Sprint costs 35–45k PLN and pays for itself in the first month after the decision.